1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an optical fiber aligning member for two-dimensionally aligning and fixing optical fibers when connecting optical fibers to other optical fibers or when connecting optical fibers to optical components.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Conventionally, as shown in FIG. 1 (Prior Art), where optical components such as an LD (laser diode) or the like are connected to optical fibers, each optical fiber 10 is positioned in an optical-fiber groove 11 in a stage 12 which is movable in the x and y directions. The stage 12 is then minutely adjusted so that the optical fiber 10 and the optical component 13 are bonded to each other at a position where the connection efficiency is optimized. In a case where one optical fiber and one optical component are connected to each other, the conventional method in which the optical fiber is aligned and fixed has no significant problem except for the time required for the positioning.
Recently however, as optical component packaging density has increased, it has become necessary that a plurality of optical fibers and a plurality of optical parts are aligned and connected to each other within a limited narrow space. To cope with such component density, a technique has been used where optical fibers are arranged one-dimensionally with the same pitch as that of the optical components and only one core of the optical fibers is aligned so that the numbers of cores of the optical fibers can be simultaneously positioned.
However, as the packaging density has increased even further, it has been necessary to arrange optical fibers two-dimensionally or in a plane. In a case where the pitch of arrangement of optical fibers is particularly narrow, there is almost no space even for the above-mentioned aligning of each of the one-dimensionally arranged members and the labor for the alignment becomes enormous if the aligning of the cores is done individually. Accordingly, it would be desirable to establish a member by which positioning of optical fibers in two dimensions can be made with high accuracy.